Wellstone

Joshua Marshall said this in tribute to Paul Wellstone who died with several others, including his wife and daughter, in a plane crash today:

I've seen my share of the fundraisers with their endless harvesting of checks from the fancy-hatted, the useless and the corrupt. But, you know, you do what it takes to accomplish things you believe are right. For a dozen years Paul Wellstone managed to show that these trade-offs did not necessarily have to be made. At least not for him. He was irreplaceable.

I originally found the link to Marshall's comments on Taegan Goddard's Political Wire, where there are other links to reflections on the man.

9:15:36 PM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []  

Cold Day, Warm Steel

From the back yard you could hear it: music drifting on the cold wind over the tops of the trees and the roofs of houses. The day was gray and drizzly, but the music carried warm Caribbean breezes and images of palm trees leaning in the sand.

Down the block, around the corner, across the street, under the shelter of the entrance to their elementary school, the kids sat and listened. They listened to the low bass and the middle sounding cello and tenor drums. They listened to the leads hammering out steel drum melodies. They listened, and they watched. They clapped. And not a one spoke to another.

When the time was done and the songs exhausted all but one, the kids groaned in disappointment. Then they cheered as the director offered to play their one remaining tune as the kids filed back into the school.

While the Star Wars bar room music bounced off the shiny metal of the drums, one by one the classes stood up and went back into the building. Some were bouncing as they walked. Some were clapping to the beat. Some were staring back, eyes still on the music. All of them were smiling. The director held the final note extra long, for the last kid to pass back in thru the doors.

You made a lot of kids happy, he said to his band. Thank you, and well done!

In spite of the gray clouds and the cold drizzle, the day was a wee bit warmer.

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Bailey Middle School Steel Drum Band @ Patton Elementary, Austin TX
9:54:58 AM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []